In a delightful article here yesterday, German paleontologist Günter Bechly documents the many absurdities that result when the Darwinian teaching on universal common ancestry runs up against a consideration of the field of biogeography.

It matters because at 52 million years ago, North America was completely separated from Africa by thousands of kilometers, with no land bridges in sight. See here for an idea of how the world is thought to have looked at this time.

Presumably they will just conclude that birds can get around due to their ability to fly great distances, and thus they can avoid another embarrassing appeal to monkeys and other animals “rafting” across the open Atlantic Ocean to solve this problem. But it’s still a further failed biogeographical prediction for neo-Darwinism.More.

In other words, the larger reason it matters is that neo-Darwinism (Darwinism) is constructed so as to be insulated from failed predictions and disproven assumptions. That’s a classic in science gone bad.

Here’s another recent example. We were told that migrating birds have weak immune system not the stronger ones that might be predicted. See: Darwinian just-so story: Some migratory birds do better with weak immune systems. The study authors’ premise is that whatever state the immune system is in must confer a survival advantage. But why? If, as many paleontologists believe, most species that have ever existed are now extinct, there is no reason in principle to think that any particular state of affairs is especially fit. Let alone come up with elaborate reasons as to why it is. Most extinctions we are told, do not happen all at once. It may take 50 thousand years for a species to either die out or stop doing what it is currently doing. But the possibility that a state of the life form is not particularly fit is opaque to Darwinian thinking. That likely accounts for many of the Just-So stories.

See also: Shaking the bird family tree: African-type bird fossil from 52 mya found in North America. In this case, what the fossil record tells us poses a problem for biogeography (the distribution of life forms worldwide over time). At 52 million years ago, North America was thousands of kilometres from Africa. Did the birds migrate? Could they?

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So on what basis can evolutionary theory make biogeographical predictions?

I think we all know there is no basis, but for the sake of answering the rhetorical question …
The basis that is used is universal common descent. Supposedly, all the evidence points to this. Even many IDists accept it (I’m a little surprised and happy to see it questioned more frequently within ID).
So, we start with the unproven assumption – and that’s the basis for everything in nature.
“Everything evolved from a universal common ancestor”, as the statement of fact. Now, observations in nature are not used as evidence supporting that idea. Instead, any number of Just-So stories are created to fit the observations into the assumption. And this “works”, because anybody can twist ideas to fit anything.

The study authors’ premise is that whatever state the immune system is in must confer a survival advantage. But why? If, as many paleontologists believe, most species that have ever existed are now extinct, there is no reason in principle to think that any particular state of affairs is especially fit. Let alone come up with elaborate reasons as to why it is. Most extinctions we are told, do not happen all at once. It may take 50 thousand years for a species to either die out or stop doing what it is currently doing. But the possibility that a state of the life form is not particularly fit is opaque to Darwinian thinking. That likely accounts for many of the Just-So stories.

Interesting – that does seem to be the case. Darwinian predictions are actually explanations after the fact, not projections to the future. There can be no criteria for what is “fit” since organisms with all sorts of fitness features have gone extinct and those lacking many of the same have survived.

At 52 million years ago, North America was thousands of kilometres from Africa. Did the birds migrate? Could they?

It’s things like this that make it easy to understand that Darwinism is not science. It’s just story-telling. How can the claim that birds could fly across oceans back then be refuted? Evolution makes magic happen. The “fact” that the birds appeared on another continent, and they evolved from ancestors in Africa means they flew, swam, floated or were carried there. Nobody will entertain another option.